07-10-19
Jaeyun Moon has been awarded the Young Scientist Award from the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr). The International Union of Crystallography assisted two young scientists to attend the 11th International Conference on Inelastic X-ray Scattering (IXS2019) and were also given the opportunity to present their work at the conference. Awardees were selected by the conference committees based on merit.
Tags: honors MCE Jaeyun Moon
07-08-19
Austin Minnich, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. This is the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. [Caltech Release]
Tags: APhMS honors MCE PECASE Austin Minnich
06-24-19
Julia R. Greer, Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics and Medical Engineering, has received the American Association for Advances in Functional Materials (AAAFM) Heeger Award for her pioneering research in creating and applying multi-scale 3D architected materials in chemical and biological devices, ultra-light weight energy storage systems, damage-tolerant fabrics, and additive manufacturing. [Award announcement]
Tags: honors MCE Julia Greer MatSci
06-12-19
The student winners of the 2019 Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes were announced at the end of this academic year. Anupama Lakshmanan, advised by Professor Mikhail Shapiro has received the prize in Biotechnology. Her research is in engineering of acoustic protein nanostructures for non-invasive molecular imaging using ultrasound. Seyedeh Mahsa Kamali, advised by Professor Andrei Faraon has received the prize in Nanotechnology. She focuses on changing paradigms in optical design through engineering materials at the nanoscale. Linqi (Daniel) Guo, advised by Professor Steven Low has received the prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Source. His research quantifies the impact of transmission network topology in electrical power system robustness against disturbances and failures. Chris Rollins, advised by Professor Jean-Phillippe Avouac has received the prize in Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection. Chris studies the way that the Earth deforms gradually over periods of years and decades and uses this to shed light on how earthquakes work, where and how often they might occur in the future, and the hazard they may pose. Nicholas Flytzanis, advised by Professor Viviana Gradinaru has receive the prize in Entrepreneurship. His research is in engineering viruses to serve as next-generation gene therapy delivery vehicles for the treatment of human disease.
Tags: APhMS EE honors MCE CMS Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prizes
06-10-19
Mechanical engineering student Zhong Qian Huang, advised by Professor Guillaume Blanquart, is a recipient of the 2019 Henry Ford II Scholar Award. Zhong has had a hands-on role in many exciting projects, including automated microscopes, spacecraft simulators, amphibious robots, autonomous drones and electric race cars. This summer he will be working for a startup that builds kitchen robots. The Henry Ford II Scholar Award is funded under an endowment provided by the Ford Motor Company Fund. The award is made annually to engineering students with the best academic record at the end of the third year of undergraduate study.
Tags: honors MCE Henry Ford II Scholar Award Guillaume Blanquart Zhong Qian Huang
06-10-19
Xiaozhou Ruan, a graduate student working with Professor Andrew Thompson, is the recipient of the 2019 Richard B. Chapman Memorial Award. Using a combination of theoretical fluid dynamics, numerical modeling and analysis of observations, he investigated the connection between the small-scale oceanic boundary layer processes and the large-scale ocean circulation and climate. The Richard B. Chapman Memorial Award is given to an EAS graduate student in hydrodynamics who has distinguished himself or herself in research.
Tags: honors Richard B. Chapman Memorial Award Andrew Thompson Xiaozhou Ruan
05-27-19
Chiara Daraio, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics, was invited to give the Spring 2019 Elsevier Distinguished Lecture in Mechanics at Princeton. Her lecture was entitled “Mechanics of Robotic Matters.” She discussed recent progress in the design of micro- and macro-scale, nonuniform materials that can bend into freeform objects, in response to environmental stimuli or with simple application of point loads. She also showed how the use of responsive materials, like shape memory polymers and liquid crystal elastomers, allows creating new, passive soft robots.
05-21-19
Mechanical engineering student Alexandra Bodrova, advised by Professor Joel Burdick, is a recipient of the 2019 Henry Ford II Scholar Award. She is passionate about robotics autonomy and its applications to extreme condition situation handling where human lives might be in danger. This summer she will be doing research on an automated charging battery. It would aid drones in conducting rescue missions in collapsed buildings or tunnels. The Henry Ford II Scholar Award is funded under an endowment provided by the Ford Motor Company Fund. The award is made annually to engineering students with the best academic record at the end of the third year of undergraduate study.
Tags: honors MCE Henry Ford II Scholar Award Joel Burdick Alexandra Bodrova
05-06-19
James L. (Jim) Beck, George W. Housner Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus, has received the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Masanobu Shinozuka Medal, "for his original contributions to subset simulation in reliability analysis of stochastic systems, a powerful technique that allows probabilistic estimation of rare events; for his pioneering work in developing technologies for machine learning in earthquake engineering applications." The medal is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of stochastic mechanics, reliability and risk and simulation. [List of medal recipients]
Tags: honors MCE CMS James Beck
03-15-19
On Tuesday Milikan Pond was transformed into an aquatic arena where amphibious robots duked it out in Caltech's annual ME72 design competition. The competition serves as the final exam for the ME72 Engineering Design Laboratory course, which is taught by Michael Mello (PhD '12). The event challenged four student teams to build three robots each. The robots had to be capable of traversing both land and water and collecting floating balls. [Caltech story & videos]
Tags: MCE alumni ME 72 Michael Mello
